Friday, 21 December 2007

I WAS intrigued by the recent spat in the Groat on the merits of the writer Neil M. Gunn.

He was a Caithnessian whose work inspires more and more folk round the world for he valued "the primordial goodness in man, a natural generosity". Therefore Iain Sutherland should be able to detect more than two or three local people who know Gunn's work are more than the few who immediately respond to his provocative remarks.

Neil Gunn gave up civil service work and went Off in a Boat in 1937 from which he concluded some very positive lessons. His journey took him from Skye to Iona, then on to the Caledonian Canal and back to Inverness where he warned at one point that "One could hope for less individual mistrust in the Highlander, or, if one likes, the Scot and so envisage a wide emergence of cooperative effort". We are still waiting.

Would that the world in which we live was also listening. On his retiral this week, the outgoing UK chief of security Sir Richard Mottram warned that global warming, flu pandemics, the emergence of rogue states, globalisation and its impact on power balances, global poverty and its impact on population movement, energy security, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and serious and organised crime are significant problems alongside his prime business of global terrorism.

In the Scottish Parliament we do have some ways of addressing many of these issues from a local perspective on the north-west coast of Europe. Of course, we could do with more powers to tackle certain of these issues ourselves. I'm glad that in the coming year parliamentary committees will address some of the issues of climate change to set us all targets for CO2 reduction. We will back energy security via the clean, green power of our seas and winds. We will try to build a national food policy to use more of our own abundant resources. Also my party, the SNP, seeks to pledge one per cent of our national income to help fight global inequalities that threaten so many of the planet's peoples, just as the Norwegians do. But we need the full tax powers to deliver.

In Scotland we face a tight cash settlement of a 0.5 per cent increase in this year's budget share dictated by the London Treasury. So, from national gallery directors to local recycling charities, cries of neglect and betrayal fill the air. Maybe I'm more sensitive this time round, but we should be feeling more confidence about the concordat between the Scottish Government and councils that will lead to a more shared and open way of deciding the priorities for local spending that people say they want. But councillors beware: in the past council officials have followed their own agenda. You will have to choose carefully from the options that include the excellent value we gain from services delivered by the voluntary sector. These must not become a victim of some official's private fiefdom.

Two Thursdays ago the Scottish Government Finance Secretary John Swinney announced his council spending plans. They embody a new partnership with councils that will require mature handling. For example, he said: "In 2007/08, some three-quarters of the funding from central government to local government is not ring-fenced. Under the concordat, we are extending the element that is not ring-fenced to about 90 per cent. A relatively small number of specific grants will remain ring-fenced. The largest of those is the police grant, which in 2008/09 amounts to £600 million."

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SCOTLAND under the SNP Government has embarked on a new course to trust the people. The scowls on the Labour benches told their own tale, for their micromanagement of spending suppressed local debate and stifled voter interest. That has to change to match the mood of increasing self-confidence across the country.

When people are asked about Scotland's constitutional future, we are told that a System 3 poll finds 40 per cent of voters for independence (with a far higher percentage in the Highlands). The question asked envisages the Scottish Government negotiating this with Westminster. That's why the Unionist Labour, Lib Dem and Tory parties tried to head off that largest minority position. They won a parliamentary debate to order the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to arrange a constitutional commission but one which concentrated on more powers, not total power for Scotland. They want to ignore the Scottish Government's National Conversation launched this summer which is open to all options. It has had the most impact of any government consultation, with tens of thousands of hits and responses. So I think that we should all make it a New Year resolution to get informed and demand that all options be reviewed.

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TALKING of new moods of optimism, in 1937 Neil Gunn saw a new mood that would conquer the defeatism that epitomised the era of the Clearances.

He wrote: "How great the change since then! Though hardly yet a suggestion of what will be when the Highlands develop their natural industries through water power and recognise they have fish and trout and salmon, mutton and game and meat, heather honey and milk and berries, roots and vegetables and whisky, that cannot be excelled, if they can be equalled, for quality and flavour anywhere in the world. The end is not yet. To realise that this is no great prophecy – consider the eyes of industrial combines. These combines will beat the landlords and the scenic sentimentalists. And if it does not go well with the workers after that, the workers will fight. There will never again be the defeatism of the Clearances. The folk will come into their own. God hurry the merry day!"

As we celebrate Christmas and the new birth it proclaims, as we follow that with a new year, let's apply hope and resolve to all the possibilities for our families our community, nation and world. Season's greetings to you all.

Friday, 7 December 2007

AT the weekend I was reading about the riots in Paris suburbs and a warning from the journalist Mary Riddell of The Observer contained in the heading, "A French lesson we ignore at our peril."

It was a stark message about the police as authority figures alienating the young. It also referred to the removal of neighbourhood policing by Monsieur Sarkozy when he was interior minister. Ms Riddell recalled how, following the Brixton riots in London in 1981, Lord Scarman talked of the "arrogant and abrasive use of power" by the Met. In Brixton the scenes of devastation left 50 residents and 400 police injured.

That made me recall views expressed by Northern Constabulary's Chief Constable Ian Latimer about SNP Government proposals to recruit 500 new police nationally and to redeploy more experienced personnel into frontline duties. He was reported as saying he wanted new recruits, not redeployed older officers. Given the tight budget settlement handed down from the London Labour Chancellor, the SNP manifesto pledge for a thousand new officers on the beat will have to be delivered in phases.

But Mr Latimer, knowing the political circumstances, still delivered his tuppenceworth: new men, not retreads. Now I realise there are operational issues that Joe Public and the Northern Joint Police Board know little of. In our family my father was a policeman and so was my brother, much more recently, so I understand a bit about shifts and deployment patterns being designed to suit circumstances. Therefore I would expect our chief constable to make a constructive contribution which I don't expect from our political opponents. Peter Peacock, for example, has been scaremongering on many issues, including raising doubts about the deployment of a score of new bobbies in the North. Perhaps Mr Latimer could adopt a different mode of expression.

It all came together last week when the report was issued by the Scottish Police Complaints Commissioner Jim Martin on the Kevin McLeod case. Mr Martin called on Mr Latimer to personally apologise for the shortcomings in the police inquiry into Kevin's death in Wick in February 1997 and the offhand way the family have been treated since.

Surprise, surprise, Mr Latimer responded that he had already apologised by letter to the family expressing "professional regret" for the conduct of the inquiry into the as-yet-unexplained death of Kevin. Also unsurprisingly, Mr Latimer refused to accept that Northern Constabulary had shown "institutional arrogance".

There remain many unanswered questions about this case. To name but two, key evidence was destroyed rather early and the force refused to meet the McLeod family after the 2003 independent report by Chief Constable Andrew Cameron of Central Scotland Police.

Some still believe there could have been a murder or culpable homicide. Kevin's family are unlikely to find out. But there could be a killer at large in Wick today.

From another point of view there's the accumulated police knowledge of the victim. Also there are questions about police expertise in dealing with such cases. With most other crime in the area there is a high clear-up rate, but there is also the unenviable record of Northern Constabulary in failing to solve violent deaths.

Therefore, drawing some conclusions, neighbourhood policing with a full-strength force is key with well-trained specialist back-up available when necessary. However, there is a need to beware "arrogant and abrasive use of power" by any police force. The SNP Government is committed to delivering the resources. Make no mistake, we back community policing and officers on the beat. So I hope the police board will act on Jim Martin's report because they are the local democratic representatives to whom the chief constable reports.

I also think not only that the McLeod family deserve an early meeting with Mr Latimer but that he should review his public pronouncements in the interests of good police and public relations in Wick and every other community in the North.

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SEVERAL years ago, early in the Labour/Lib Dem coalition government, they spent £300,000 on consultants to decide how best to brand Scotland. The answer was to use the Saltire, Scotland's national flag. A no-brainer, you might say.

Last week a row broke out when Labour leaders threw up a smokescreen to hide their palpable troubles north and south of the border with ineligible donors by rubbishing the refreshed Scottish Government logos, photos and slogans to make visitors "Welcome to Scotland".

I appeared on Radio 4 and Radio 2 with the Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who coined spurious slogans such as "the home of Chip and PIN" as examples of the kind of thing on offer. The myth about Europe ordering the production of straight bananas has as much credence. For £125,000 we developed, produced and erected a new suite of posters. You don't get many 30-second adverts on prime-time TV for that price. Frankly it's great to get rid of the cringeworthy Labour/Lib Dem line about the greatest wee country in the world.

Listeners to Radio 2 did lighten up the debate with some of their own suggestions, from the banal to the plain wicked. These included "Scotland – the most subsidised wee country in the world"; "Scotland – England's last colony"; "Scotland – find out why it's called bonny"; "Scotland – for ever"; and so on. My favourite dotty one was "Scotland – hilly and chilly!"

Maybe the Leith Agency, who also designed the award-winning advertisements for Irn Bru and the anti-smoking campaign ads, has a little more savvy.

THERE'S been a positive change of public mood in recent months. All across Scotland you meet people at events who feel that the pace of Scottish life has gone up tempo.

It was just great to win the 2014 bid to host the Commonwealth Games, but we must ensure that athletics and sport in Caithness can benefit out of it. People are glad to support Scottish success and they believe lots of good will flow from it.

Locally, I much enjoyed the Caithness Heritage Fair in Wick on November 10. So much effort is put in by a wide variety of groups to spice up and enjoy the life of Caithness, of yesteryear and today. For instance, the huge interest in family history is shown by the depth of knowledge of members of the Caithness Family History Society, while Wick Youth Club has had great success in promoting the playing of rock music by a cohort of youngsters; they gain positive feelings from their achievements in the Music-Link-Media workshop.

Talking of achievements, Ormlie Community Association can be rightly proud of its award gained from Energy Action Scotland for the Caithness Energy Advice Project (Energy SOS – "Shout Out Savings!"). Louise Smith and her team are starting the practical work to engage every householder in the area on ways they can take part in climate-change mitigation and adaptation. Put simply: warmer, cosier homes that don't use excess electricity.

I also visited Dunbeath Heritage Centre on the same day. We had a fascinating discussion about the possibilities of rolling out a lot more information to schoolchildren and others about the linguistic mix of place-names in this area. In some cases, three different language roots are involved. Nan Bethune hopes to see a lot more engagement by schools in understanding how Caithness has been a cultural crossroads for many centuries. Indeed, Neil M. Gunn shows that interface in many of his stories and novels. With the coming of the Royal National Mod to the county in 2010, it should trigger a far better local understanding of our complex roots.

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THERE has been a widespread welcome from many parts of the country for the decision by the Scottish Qualifications Authority to make questions on Scottish history an essential part of the Higher history exam from school year 2010/11. The exam will contain a mandatory Scottish section, so I would join in the congratulations to those teachers, academics and politicians who campaigned successfully for this decision and believe that, after years of Scottish history being overlooked in secondary schools, pupils at Higher level will finally have a chance to learn about and understand their own heritage and the part that it played in the creation of the modern world.

In the context of the Curriculum for Excellence, this should require the SQA to equip every teacher involved with materials that relate to the local involvement in national events and the national significance of events locally that have been overlooked at qualification levels. It's another example of a quango resolving to apply an aspect of the SNP election manifesto without the need for any law to be passed. I'm so glad they have, because under the Labour/Lib Dem regime of the past eight years there was even a suggestion that history wasn't a necessary discrete subject in secondary schools. We gain in confidence when we know of our own national and local story.

Rob Gibson MSP with Louise Smith of Ormlie Renewables at the Caithness Heritage Fair in Wick.

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THE Government economic strategy was debated on Wednesday afternoon in Holyrood and the SNP won the day by accepting an amendment from the Tories in the name of Derek Brownlee which added, at the end of our motion, "and, recognising the importance of small businesses to the Scottish economy, calls on the Scottish Government, if additional resources become available, to prioritise the acceleration of the full implementation of the reductions in business rates for small businesses announced in the budget on 14 November 2007".

Surprisingly, this did not find favour with Labour and the Lib Dems. They ignore the realities of life in the Far North and across Scotland. Not only will the SNP's commitment to the small business bonus be delivered, as promised in our manifesto, it will have a major part to play in the new targets of increasing the wealth of every family by £10,000 in the next few years. Of course the tight budget settlement makes it difficult to deliver by April 2008, but it will be fully implemented by 2011. So let's praise John Swinney for his ability to stick to these sustainable growth measures.

However, there has been a huge orchestrated campaign by Labour and the Lib Dems to talk up broken promises. If the debate was about starting to improve the numbers of police on our streets, about reducing class sizes in P1 to P3 to 18 in the next four years, things would look differently. But I have to say that every extra teacher trained and deployed, every extra police constable in place, and every new dentist trained in the new Aberdeen dental school sounds like good common sense to me. Of course, though, opposition wants to see things happen instantly, even if this bunch in opposition had the last eight years to deliver.

And in that I hope the mood of optimism among people who will benefit from the council tax freeze and all the other SNP budget measures will agree that we can do so much better by having all the economic levers that normal nations have. Devolution can be made to work better, but there's no substitute for the logic of full powers.

Friday, 9 November 2007

HOLYROOD in recent weeks has been peppered by repeated attempts of the opposition to claim the SNP Government has broken its manifesto promises – that is, five months into a four-year parliament the Labour, Tory and Lib Dem front benches are charging around to pour scorn on the sound start made by Alex Salmond's team.

They question our promises to reduce class sizes in P1 to P3 and get another 1000 police on the beat, and the rescue package for farmers and crofters following the Pirbright foot-and-mouth outbreak. Curiously there is little response to facts that show Scotland pays its way.

Unsurprisingly the scandal of Ofgem is its claim to be aiding renewable energy development in the face of the grid charges it placed on Scottish producers. It looks all the more ludicrous when government statistics shatter the myth that Scotland is subsidised by London and south-east English taxpayers, and we could pay our way even better with cheap access to the grid.

The SNP Government is already delivering for Scotland's children on our pledge to make Scotland smarter. We have begun to drive down class sizes in deprived areas, provided funding for 300 additional teachers, increased pre-school education and provided £40 million additional capital funding for school buildings.

This Government is doing what Labour failed to do: delivering on our commitments and taking positive steps to ensure children born under an SNP Government get the best possible start in life. Over the last eight years Labour and the Lib Dems failed to produce any strategy for Scotland's children to support them in their early years and failed to meet their own class-size pledges.

In 2003, Jack McConnell promised to cut class sizes in primary one to a maximum of 25 pupils. In 2006, 41 per cent of children in primary one – children born under a Labour Government – were still in classes of over 25. In 2007, Wendy Alexander says class sizes don't matter any more. It's time for Labour to make up its mind.

Labour won't be forgiven for its dereliction of duty and denials in the face of a national farming crisis. When foot-and-mouth compensation was delivered after the 2001 crisis, it was underwritten by Westminster. In 2007, the Treasury would not allow Defra, its London-based agriculture department, to pay up after the threat of an early election had passed.

At Holyrood, Lib Dems gave initial support for Labour's defence of Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Hilary Benn by voting for the Labour amendment which was defeated by the combined SNP, Tory and Green votes. Then the Lib Dems flip-flopped and backed the compensation package as offered in Scotland.

As was noted by Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, most of the country knows that the Westminster Government is responsible and should pay up, like they did in 2001. Although our package amounts to more than three times the amount of cash that Labour had been due to commit before Brown bottled out of his election plans, the Scottish Government's £25 million emergency package is certainly not the end of the problem.

If Westminster wants to retain control over issues like animal welfare then it needs to take responsibility for them.

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ENTERPRISE Minister Jim Mather on the floor of the Parliament stated that the Scottish Government would seek to emulate and exceed the powers of Canadian provinces which have responsibility for the revenues accruing from oil reserves on their territory.

On a visit to Canada during the recess, Jim saw for himself the benefits that a Canadian province such as Alberta can gain from husbanding its own oil reserves whereas in Scotland we find our oil revenues flowing south into the London Exchequer. Chancellor Darling has already projected that the coming six years of North Sea revenues will be £55bn – a substantial increase over the £38bn from the previous six-year period.

In particular, Alberta's oil fund ensures lower personal and business taxes for Albertans. The responsibilities that the Canadian provinces hold are in sharp contrast to the power London Government has over our own resources. Now our Energy Minister in Scotland seeks to emulate the success of Alberta. Coming after Labour Minister Malcolm Wicks's comment that building up an oil fund like Norway was an attractive idea, this shows that the debate on a Scottish oil fund is going in the SNP's favour.

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JUST when the true wealth to Scotland of our full tax contribution to the UK Treasury was revealed, Ofgem published a Sustainable Development Report which stated that it was making a substantial contribution to renewable energy targets. This is the same regulator that introduced a transmission charge regime and proposes zonal transmission charges that undermine the economic viability of renewable generation in the north and west of Scotland.

It is utterly ludicrous for them to claim these moves are positive for producing a sustainable energy system. We know Scotland has huge renewables potential – indeed it has been described as the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy – but much of this is being put at risk by the insane system that Ofgem insists on pursuing.

On top of that, a speech by Scotland Office Minister David Cairns accepted the economic viability of an independent Scotland. He's the man who came to Caithness for the Beyond Dounreay conference and insisted renewable energy investment was good for the Far North. It's not just the Tories in London and the London tabloid papers that run down Scotland.

Labour and the Lib Dems in Scotland have played the same scaremongering game for years, flying in the face of the facts about Scotland's ability to prosper as an independent country – such evidence would put Scotland as third wealthiest nation in the EU.

The opposition's unrelenting negativity is one of the key reasons why they lost the election in May, and I suspect it will take them some time yet to sing a new song with any degree of conviction. We need that positive song, for this St Andrew's Day gives us cause for a small national celebration.

Friday, 26 October 2007

EARLIER this week, at a meeting held in Glasgow, MSPs and councillors, anti-nuclear weapons campaigners and church leaders gathered to plan resistance to the development of son of Trident.

The UK Labour Government, the Tory opposition and to a great extent the Liberal Democrats at UK level all agree: Britain won't be Britain without a credible nuclear weapons capacity. No seat at the UN Security Council, no longer a world policeman... there's a lot at stake. Not least for the Lib Dems, whose one hope of power in Westminster is a hung parliament at the next election.

When it comes to civil nuclear matters regarding Dounreay, John Thurso and Jamie Stone opt out of party policy which is against nuclear reactor development. I see that the Scottish Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen is saying that Scottish Parliamentary representatives should remain silent on the Trident issue because it is a reserved matter – imitating the position taken by Labour's leader in the Scottish Parliament, Wendy Alexander.

This directly contradicts Mr Stephen's message to Lib Dem activists at his party's pre-election conference in February where he attacked a Labour memo telling Labour Party branches to avoid all mention of Trident and Iraq, and also said that Liberal Democrats would not keep quiet on those issues and would hold Labour "accountable to the voters of Scotland on May 3".

So what's changed now? Well, the Lib Dem MP John Barrett is breaking ranks with his leader and is listed to be speaking at an anti-Trident rally on November 3 in Edinburgh. Also there's an SNP Government in Scotland that is seeking popular support for moves to block Trident deployment on the Clyde.

Obviously the Lib Dems have to oppose the SNP because it's a reserved matter and Mr Salmond, they feel, should concentrate on the NHS and education, not pick fights with London... so why do so many MPs dabble in Scottish Parliament matters?

But Mr Stephen and his dwindling band of supporters should ponder this. In a tight budget settlement with the lowest increase for any of the last several years, the Scottish Government is being hampered from delivering more police on the streets, more teachers and smaller classes, and a fully-funded NHS, because UK priorities are to spend billions on the Trident replacement, continuing to pay a huge cost in soldiers and cash to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, Brent crude oil hits a new high of $90 a barrel, which pours taxes into the Treasury but not into the Scottish block grant. Scotland's health, economy and safety and the people's wishes go against those who seek political power in London at Scotland's expense. The Scottish people want rid of Trident. They also show strong support for the SNP Government's efforts to stand up for our nation.

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DURING the tattie holidays we were invited to a wedding in Brittany. The Le Lay family were celebrating their oldest son's wedding. We joined in with gusto, and a couple of days after the celebrations we saw the apple harvest for their distillery that makes cider and spirits. It was a delight to see apple varieties growing in the orchards that go to make good live cider.

On a smaller scale it's also apple harvest time here at home. The Discovery and Stirling Castle varieties have done well in our garden this year. But you'll never see these in the supermarkets. There are many old Scots varieties that grow well where we live. Since fruit is one of the low-maintenance crops, anyone with the space should be planting some apple trees.

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ALSO in Brittany I had the chance to speak in Nantes at a conference of the French Society for Scottish Studies. It was organised by the research centre on national identity and intercultural matters based at the local university. Their annually colloquium focused this year on Scottish national identity in which 22 papers were read and debated over two days. My own contribution on "The Scottish Political Scene Today" had potentially the graveyard slot – first thing on Saturday morning – but amazingly the room was packed with more than 60 attendees, half of whom were students who forsook their beds on a fine Saturday morning to be there.

The slot overran due to the interesting questions that probed the Scottish body politic and found it in rude health. Then I was driven speedily across town to an old warehouse where Annie Thiec, one of the Nantes politics lecturers, conducted a half-hour conversation on the same subject for transmission on Euradio. It is a multicultural radio station run by three journalists and a dozen students from all over Europe. It has the backing of the EU Europe for Citizens programme. An FM station broadcasts locally, and the podcasts and streaming for internet audiences allow debate and discussion of views from citizens of the 27 partner nations.

By the way, the conversation was in English with Annie Thiec who completed her thesis on the momentous 1995 Perth and Kinross by-election which was won by my colleague Roseanna Cunningham, now an MSP – a fact she told me afterwards.

Out there in the world there is a growing interest in Scotland and Scottish studies. Our First Minister, Alex Salmond, has much to tell from his recent US trip. But we are far behind the Irish in academic recognition. Their culture, history and progress is studied in dozens of dedicated departments in universities the world over. Our universities are keen to make these links; several already do, but it is all the more urgent that the UHI Millennium Institute gains its full charter as the Highlands and Islands perspective is most attractive to many of the Scottish Diaspora.

Whether it's Trident, broadcasting, higher education or cultural showcases, if Scotland's government doesn't speak up, hard experience indicates that London cannot be relied upon to do so.

Friday, 12 October 2007

IT'S a shame that Gordon Brown didn't decide to go for an election this November (not least because the SNP is riding high in the polls).

However, another reason would have been to see how a Scottish Prime Minister and his Chancellor would defend this week's decision to increase Scotland's budget by (when taking inflation into account) 1.4 per cent for the next three years, starting with a 0.5 per cent increase for the next financial year.

The SNP's treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie described this as a "lousy deal" and said that Scotland had been "short-changed".

Labour has denied this, but what is undeniable is that it is the smallest increase in the Scottish budget since devolution and it comes at a time when oil prices are strong and are forecast to increase.

However, that is the nature of devolution and the SNP Government will work within the settlement.

THE pleasant Indian summer can't disguise the fact that for livestock farmers in Scotland it has been anything but. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, announced that there is to be a cull of 250,000 light lambs which should have been sent to market in continental Europe but, due to foot-and-mouth restrictions, couldn't be exported.

The lambs are set to starve on the hillside this winter. It is regrettable situation and very much an action of last resort. Farmers are to be compensated at £15 per lamb, which from what I hear is more than they are selling for at market. However, it is a situation that no-one wanted.

BETTER news came last week when the Petitions Committee unanimously agreed that the Association of Caithness Community Councils' petition on rail improvements to the Far North rail line (including a Dornoch rail link) should be put forward for consideration by the Transport Committee.

The case for the petition is attracting cross-party support and will be a great help when it comes to committee. I spoke in favour of the petition last week, as did Highland Committee members Rhoda Grant and John Farquhar Munro. There was consensus that a reduced rail journey time to the Far North is crucial to the development of a post-Dounreay local economy. I will be doing all I can to make it a reality. I am sure a cross-party approach can make it happen.

FOOT-and-mouth caused the cancellation of many "Gates Open" farm events last month. But two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Living Food festival at Cawdor Castle. Most of the produce came from Morayshire. However, Caithness and other parts of the Highlands and Islands have much to offer in terms of prime quality meat, vegetables and fruit. Hundreds of people attended the feast, showing that there is a growing public demand for tasty, local, fairly-priced foodstuffs. Producers in Caithness can capitalise on this.

IN the Education Committee we have been delving into the SNP Government proposals for a six-month pilot scheme in five local authority areas (alas not Highland) to offer free school meals to all pupils. The committee is composed of a majority of opposition MSPs and they have been at pains to find fault with the plans.

After all the humming and hawing, the committee agreed by seven votes to nil, with one Tory abstention, that the order to set up the pilot should be approved; and indeed Parliamentary approval was given on Wednesday, October 3, at decision time.

What it heralds is a food culture change for all families with school-age children or younger. But we will need £80 million a year to achieve this – so health comes at a price. I hope the public at large will applaud the SNP Government for its commitment to making a start.

AS all organisers of festivals know, it's an act of faith when you stand there waiting for the first customers to arrive. Even with electronic ticketing it can be nail-biting, especially for smaller events. It is equally true of the 40 events in the recent Caithness Arts Festival and the even more recent John Lennon Northern Lights Festival at which the eclectic programme was matched only by the unseasonably sunny weather in Durness.

I am very keen to see how the Scottish Arts Council and other bodies offer support to artists. I have been lodging a series of questions in Parliament and I'm also seeking evidence from North festival organisers to weigh up the treatment they receive from the SAC.

It was a pleasure to see so many friends from Wick, Thurso and the Back Coast among the thousand people who gathered to celebrate the John Lennon connection in the last week in September.

Mike Merritt pulled the idea together earlier this year. Despite the difficulties of funding being closed for Scotland's Year of Highland Culture he assembled a wide range of talent. John Lennon's close family were supportive from the start, as the late pop star had spent youthful holidays with relatives at Sangomore. I met his sister, Julia Baird, in Durness and was delighted to talk to someone who knew the ex-Beatle both before and during his fame.

May the celebrations develop and flourish next year in Durness. It's great to see new artistic efforts prosper in the Far North.

Friday, 28 September 2007

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

SO wrote the Bard of Avon in Julius Caesar, but it could well be the motto adopted from the outcome of the Caithness Conference: Beyond Dounreay held in Thurso a fortnight ago.

All whom I spoke to afterwards were impressed by the positive atmosphere, the can-do spirit. Certainly there was a realistic air that a new beginning is needed and that all responsible, whether in London and Scottish governments or local agencies, have to make sure a firm partnership puts the businesses with all the skills to the forefront.

The UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks took the sensible step of visiting the European Marine Energy Centre in Stromness before going to Dounreay and then the opening session of the Thurso conference. He showed support for marine renewables but, as is the UK position, stressed that it is not a case of "renewables versus nuclear". He told the Orkney papers that we need more energy security, but a diversity of energy supply in the future with the early element of renewables coming from on and offshore wind as well as the Labour Government's preferred option for new nuclear build in its present consultation. The lesson is Caithness must work in partnership with Orkney.

When he got to Caithness, Mr Wicks felt sure that access to the grid would be achieved by energy producers in the Far North. Why he said this became clear later in the day, though not directly in the conference proceedings. However, the tone of the conference seemed clear to me. No-one in authority believes that new nuclear stations will be built here. They will be built in England, near to main population centres, and renewables will be a good way to use the great skills base at present involved in nuclear decommissioning hereabouts.

Therefore the key questions are how we can develop our huge tidal resources in the Pentland Firth and how we can ensure a major grid connection to market that infinite source of clean power.

The day Mr Wicks was in Orkney, Highlands and Islands Enterprise released a most insightful consultation paper. It showed up the scandalous proposals by Ofgem that would mean new sources of power in this area costing thirty times more to connect to the grid than is the case in Denmark. But, on the very day of the conference, Ofgem curiously signalled a six-month review of its punitive proposals – what a coincidence.

That's why I lodged a motion in Parliament which has yet to be signed by other than SNP MSPs. Also I gained a successful supplementary question a week ago at First Minister's Questions. Alex Salmond was known to be meeting Ofgem later that day and was quite clear that our future plans for clean energy production require a climb-down by the London Government's regulator. The First Minister's answer made it crystal clear: grid connection will not go away. It's another example of why the national conversation on full powers for the Scottish Government has a direct impact here in Caithness.

ESTABLISHING the actual costs of full commercialisation of tidal power is complex but a far from impossible task. I believe it was John Farquhar of the NDA, speaking at the conference, who guesstimated between one and two billion pounds, or the equivalent of the costs of a new nuclear station. I am seeking the guidance of Scottish Ministers and will try to establish as accurate a figure as I can get. Of course, the taxpayer directly underwrote the building of Dounreay, but today a mix of private and public funds will be required.

Also one part of the speech from the Scotland Office Minister David Cairns is memorable. He flew into Caithness to give the closing conference speech and pointed out that many communities seeking regeneration thought the route was via renewables. He cautioned against that route for some places but in contrast thought it a major prospect here. He also thought there was little reason for the continued existence of some former industrial communities but that Caithness was different. We know it is resource-rich and has every right to expect a bright future if we are focused.

FLOODING was another issue debated in Parliament last week. My contribution highlighted the inordinate time it has taken to resolve some of the consequences of last October's storms. A case in point is the cemetery footbridge over the River Thurso. It took the Highland Council until May to lodge a £200,000 bridge replacement claim in a bigger £1.6 million bid. Even so, it still awaits the wheels of civil service processes to put a report on Ministers' desks.

The promise of a Flooding Bill next year to modernise outdated practices and government responses has had a warm cross-party welcome. But in every part of the country, low-lying areas, river valleys and flood plains as well as vulnerable coasts will come under greater threat as more frequent severe weather events pile in.

Appropriately the Bard concluded:

On such a full sea are we now afloat,And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures.

I believe that harnessing the tides and managing the floods will occupy every nation's government. For our sake in Caithness, Scotland must not be diverted from substantial investment in both or else people here will "lose our ventures".

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

SO wrote the Bard of Avon in Julius Caesar, but it could well be the motto adopted from the outcome of the Caithness Conference: Beyond Dounreay held in Thurso a fortnight ago.

All whom I spoke to afterwards were impressed by the positive atmosphere, the can-do spirit. Certainly there was a realistic air that a new beginning is needed and that all responsible, whether in London and Scottish governments or local agencies, have to make sure a firm partnership puts the businesses with all the skills to the forefront.

The UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks took the sensible step of visiting the European Marine Energy Centre in Stromness before going to Dounreay and then the opening session of the Thurso conference. He showed support for marine renewables but, as is the UK position, stressed that it is not a case of "renewables versus nuclear". He told the Orkney papers that we need more energy security, but a diversity of energy supply in the future with the early element of renewables coming from on and offshore wind as well as the Labour Government's preferred option for new nuclear build in its present consultation. The lesson is Caithness must work in partnership with Orkney.

When he got to Caithness, Mr Wicks felt sure that access to the grid would be achieved by energy producers in the Far North. Why he said this became clear later in the day, though not directly in the conference proceedings. However, the tone of the conference seemed clear to me. No-one in authority believes that new nuclear stations will be built here. They will be built in England, near to main population centres, and renewables will be a good way to use the great skills base at present involved in nuclear decommissioning hereabouts.

Therefore the key questions are how we can develop our huge tidal resources in the Pentland Firth and how we can ensure a major grid connection to market that infinite source of clean power.

The day Mr Wicks was in Orkney, Highlands and Islands Enterprise released a most insightful consultation paper. It showed up the scandalous proposals by Ofgem that would mean new sources of power in this area costing thirty times more to connect to the grid than is the case in Denmark. But, on the very day of the conference, Ofgem curiously signalled a six-month review of its punitive proposals – what a coincidence.

That's why I lodged a motion in Parliament which has yet to be signed by other than SNP MSPs. Also I gained a successful supplementary question a week ago at First Minister's Questions. Alex Salmond was known to be meeting Ofgem later that day and was quite clear that our future plans for clean energy production require a climb-down by the London Government's regulator. The First Minister's answer made it crystal clear: grid connection will not go away. It's another example of why the national conversation on full powers for the Scottish Government has a direct impact here in Caithness.

ESTABLISHING the actual costs of full commercialisation of tidal power is complex but a far from impossible task. I believe it was John Farquhar of the NDA, speaking at the conference, who guesstimated between one and two billion pounds, or the equivalent of the costs of a new nuclear station. I am seeking the guidance of Scottish Ministers and will try to establish as accurate a figure as I can get. Of course, the taxpayer directly underwrote the building of Dounreay, but today a mix of private and public funds will be required.

Also one part of the speech from the Scotland Office Minister David Cairns is memorable. He flew into Caithness to give the closing conference speech and pointed out that many communities seeking regeneration thought the route was via renewables. He cautioned against that route for some places but in contrast thought it a major prospect here. He also thought there was little reason for the continued existence of some former industrial communities but that Caithness was different. We know it is resource-rich and has every right to expect a bright future if we are focused.

FLOODING was another issue debated in Parliament last week. My contribution highlighted the inordinate time it has taken to resolve some of the consequences of last October's storms. A case in point is the cemetery footbridge over the River Thurso. It took the Highland Council until May to lodge a £200,000 bridge replacement claim in a bigger £1.6 million bid. Even so, it still awaits the wheels of civil service processes to put a report on Ministers' desks.

The promise of a Flooding Bill next year to modernise outdated practices and government responses has had a warm cross-party welcome. But in every part of the country, low-lying areas, river valleys and flood plains as well as vulnerable coasts will come under greater threat as more frequent severe weather events pile in.

Appropriately the Bard concluded:

On such a full sea are we now afloat,And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures.

I believe that harnessing the tides and managing the floods will occupy every nation's government. For our sake in Caithness, Scotland must not be diverted from substantial investment in both or else people here will "lose our ventures".

I WAS very glad to take part in the short debate on the Scottish Government's programme for this session.

Speaking last Wednesday, I emphasised one of the key non-legislative moves which is open to the SNP administration – namely, taking control of the day-to-day activities of the Crown Estate Commission in Scotland.

Before the elections in May, the Highland Council launched a report by the Crown Estate Review Working Group which was backed by all Highlands and Islands councils. Now that the new ministers are getting to grips with waves of papers, I think it is time for them to get to grips with the shadowy body that rules our waves. I'm sure that already has cross-party support.

I asked the Government to prioritise the retrieval of the Crown Estate Commission (CEC) powers that could be administered in Scotland just like the Forestry Commission is, i.e. with a separate Scottish set-up. When devolution came along the Crown Estate, unlike the Forestry Commission, retreated into its London redoubt. Yet its actions affect inshore and seashore life day and daily, mainly as a big financial drag for little return to local communities.

The way the Crown Estate manages Scotland's seabed and foreshore creates problems for marine renewable energy development and with "taxation" on projects beyond the twelve-mile limit; even worse, the vast bulk of the CEC levy goes straight to the Treasury. Addressing the issue within the existing devolution set-up would be possible, and an immediate benefit could be had for our harbours such as Scrabster and Wick, but also every small quay and jetty on the coast. Some 80 per cent of Scotland's harbours are managed by the Scottish Government, local authorities and trust ports in the public interest – that's why we must end the Crown Estate taking revenue from us. This would be major bonus to all sea-users.

*

FOOT-and-mouth disease seeping through the drains at Pirbright in Surrey has dampened a potentially good year for livestock production. On my travels I've heard nothing but praise from farmers, crofters and red-meat processors across the North who welcomed the early lifting of the movement and sales bans. They have congratulated the Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead and his professionals for their moves to minimise disruption in places so far from the outbreak.

In a statement last week in Holyrood, Richard explained that investigations about any possible traffic in hoofed animals from Surrey to Scotland drew a blank. So the inquiry under Professor Scudamore set to look into the whole outbreak will consider the point I raised, i.e. at the moment Scotland is part of one British epidemiological unit in relation to exotic disease. Could he consider, I asked, in terms of our economic interests and biosecurity, if it would it be practical and beneficial to explore the prospects of Scotland being treated by the EU as an epidemiological unit?

The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment replied that regionalisation had been considered over the past few weeks and many risk issues had been highlighted.

It is important for Professor Scudamore to analyse these. However, we must recognise that the reason why Great Britain is identified as one epidemiological unit is because of the cross-border trade and the fact that there are no natural boundaries.

Since the outbreak was six hundred miles from Caithness, it was very different from the events of 2001 when the cause of the FMD mass pyres stemmed from infected meat found in the north-east of England. So the National Conversation on Scotland's constitutional future needs to tackle such cross-border issues. I'm glad to say that close co-operation between the SNP Government in Edinburgh and the Labour Government in London speeded the end of the emergency.

*

MAKING the case for local production and consumption of food this Scottish Food Fortnight is in many minds and, I hope, stomachs. What with the proven scientific hazards of additives to children's behaviour and the lax biosecurity standards of imported meat produced in South America and South-East Asia, it was a great pleasure to attend the Scottish Crofting Foundation AGM in Dingwall last Friday which featured the schools project Planting to Plate.

This involved four schools – Kilchoan primary in Ardnamurchan, Sgoil nan Loch from Lewis, Whalsay from Shetland and Farr school on the north coast. They collaborated with local crofters and learned about the history of local food culture, dug out lazy beds and gardens, ate their own produce, had lessons on healthy diets, measured the health of the soil they planted in, recognised the effects on the local environment and learned about the reduction of their carbon footprint and food miles through their efforts.

Along with the crofting delegates the children marvelled at Margaret Bennett's description of life on a Skye croft in the 1950s when nothing was wasted. Later that day their celebration of planting and eating local food came to a climax at Inverness High School, from which the produce of its own school garden was served up; it is now sold at farmers' markets and is included in their own school meals.

I caught up with Pam Rodway, who works for the Soil Association and is a renowned cheese-maker from Moray in her own right. She told me that all concerned had much enjoyed this project and that a review could decide to roll it out to other schools.

Farr school's students have set a benchmark for Caithness and Sutherland primary and secondary schools to dig for health and culinary victory.

Friday, 31 August 2007

TAKING stock of the first hundred days since our new SNP government was elected shows a whole raft of demands from all the parties in Holyrood for more powers for our young Scottish Parliament.

But before I look at some of the pointers to exciting things to come, I'd like to turn to see what the Highland Council, elected by the Single Transferable Vote in multi-member wards, has been doing in the same timescale.

The council was radically restructured under the outgoing chief executive, Arthur McCourt. He took advantage of the voting-system changes to abolish area committees such as those for Caithness and run services for Easter Ross, Sutherland and Caithness from the expensively converted buildings at Golspie.

Additionally the appointment of ward managers was a way to give some focus to the three electoral areas, Wick, Thurso and Landward Caithness. They have yet to show any input to improve services, but it's early days yet. To my way of thinking, the wards could be a really powerful local delivery mechanism. But Mr McCourt had other ideas. So we see more and more decisions requiring the councillors to meet in Inverness and to suck more powers away from the already weakened areas. I predict that it will take a concerted campaign by ward councillors to demand real powers.

Meanwhile, the feeling that the independent/SNP coalition is slowly finding its feet is tempered with the knowledge that to achieve any transfer of budgets and powers for local areas in former counties like Caithness will require an all-Highland effort. I suggest that folk from Lochaber and Nairn, Skye and Ross-shire feel the same. So my advice to our own Far North councillors is to seek allies for a rethink to demand that powers be returned to the local wards.

* * *

EARLIER this week the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee met in an away-day in Dunkeld to plan for this new parliamentary session. Our business programme for the next few months confirms that in its first hundred days the new SNP government has stamped a distinctive and popular agenda that will affect every part of the country. We could see that clearly in the transport field.

On its record of the first 100 days, Cabinet Secretary John Swinney reported that swift and early action has been taken in government to deliver the SNP programme to make Scotland more successful. Among the full range of measures are commitments to remove the iniquitous tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges and to set a target of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. A Climate Change Bill consultation will take this forward.

These items were in our discussions at Dunkeld with the minister Stewart Stevenson. But we also realise that better rail, ferry and bus services are essential if climate-change objectives are to be met in the North and all other parts. So there's an expectation of weekly and possibly twice-weekly committee meetings for the foreseeable future. That means or Tuesday afternoon slots in Holyrood could start earlier and go on later such is the volume of business.

What has been gained for Caithness? Well, if we reckon that tolls are a penalty on Fife and Angus, then steep ferry fares are a toll on our islands, for example the Orkney to Caithness services. So the logic of introducing road equivalent tariff leads to the need for Westminster to make diesel and petrol prices the same in Dunnet or Dundee and that the whole economy should benefit from reduced transport costs for delivering livestock, grain, whisky or manufactured goods to market from the North and tourists to the Highlands.

Direct benefits for Caithness from the new SNP government include the promise of legislation to end graduate endowments; funding for 300 extra teachers and 250 more teacher training places from this month, to drive down class sizes in P1 to 3; and a commitment to providing additional funding for a phased 50 per cent increase in free nursery provision.

On the crime front, ongoing negotiations are taking place with Westminster on the transfer of responsibilities for firearms legislation to the Scottish Parliament to allow action on air weapons – though it seems Westminster is not yet ready to let us get ahead with this.

A Saltire Award for innovation in industry will reward the best efforts to develop cutting-edge renewable energy technology such as tidal and wave power. That could let Caithness compete in the renewables field; the Highland Council will have to join the big businesses of Caithness such as UKAEA to ensure that our huge engineering facilities and skills are built into a strong local base.

But above all the publication of a white paper on independence and the launch of a national conversation on the steady transfer of more powers from Westminster to Holyrood has induced the opposition parties to agree in part. Labour, Tories and Lib Dems all agree, and have met to plot their stance, that the status quo of limited powers enjoyed by Holyrood today does not meet Scotland's needs. Clearly the public is enthused too, as 25,000 people have already logged on to the Scottish government website to join in. I will be holding meetings to debate issues here in the autumn.

* * *

MANY aspects of culture in the Highlands are thriving and the Blas festival next week will show how our traditional music is cutting edge. On the other committee that I attend, Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture, we need to get over the message that the international festivals, such as those drawing to a close in Edinburgh, should give a platform to North artists. Having just returned from a book festival for island literature in Brittany where Scottish islands' authors were being celebrated, I just wonder when they will gain such recognition from festivals in our own main cities.

Friday, 17 August 2007

MOST people agree that the SNP Government led by Alex Salmond has set a very positive agenda in its first hundred days. Every part of the country has something to gain. Even the crises of a failed terror attack in Glasgow or the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey have been handled skilfully.

But it's the proposals to transform Scotland that really stand out. However, I'll offer a few thoughts firstly on the effects of the FMD issue.

The Pirbright research complex in Surrey seems to have led to the contamination of farm animals three miles away. No doubt a careful inquiry will pin the cause and advise precautions for the future. Meanwhile, livestock businesses in Scotland and the rest of England and Wales take the hit. As I've said before in Parliament, farming and crofting may contribute only around two per cent of our gross domestic product, but without them nothing else can happen – unless we go completely mad and rely totally on imports and the poorer standards of food this offers.

That's why Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, has consulted widely with all parts of the livestock industry and has made sure Scottish interests, needs and concerns are conveyed directly to GB ministers. Since Britain is one epidemiological unit in exotic disease terms, this needs careful handling so as not to disadvantage Scotland which relies far more heavily on farm incomes than down south. That's why Richard Lochhead has gained praise for his speedy, but measured, orders to free up movements to abattoirs and on the islands to keep the food chain on track from farm gate to the customer's plate.

We shall see what happens as the facts emerge on the FMD outbreak but the SNP Government will try to protect those businesses, especially in the North, whose annual pay cheques look distinctly hard hit by these faraway events such that the huge crop of small lambs are now excluded from the continental market. I have been discussing the way forward with farmers and crofters around the North and I'm sure that the previous experience gained by Richard and myself on the Environment and Rural Development Committee in Holyrood in the aftermath of the 2001 outbreak of FMD will stand us in good stead.

*

A BROAD range of opinion has welcomed the First Minister's announcement that broadcasting in Scotland needs a shake-up and cash support to make many more programmes here. In particular, a news-gathering operation in Glasgow working with the BBC's worldwide network could easily produce a Scottish Six – an hour of Scottish-centred but not parochial news coverage.

Such a broadcasting luminary as Alan Clements, a principal of Wark Clements and recently appointed director of content for SMG, or STV to you and me, sees the need to have Scottish political clout to dispel the myth that there is no talent here to make more programmes for the UK TV network. He knows that talent abounds in Scotland if funds can be channelled here as the three per cent current share of BBC funding alone should be nine per cent on a population basis. I did some work recently for an STV commission to cover the Highland Clearances and I can think of many Scottish subjects that have been ignored for far too long.

I was intrigued by the remarks of Philip Schlesinger, professor of cultural policy at Glasgow University, when he compared the content of the BBC's Six O'Clock News and Reporting Scotland. There is often overlap and double reporting. As for the weather forecast, he suggests turning the weather map upside down to see how the UK audience takes to seeing the North of Scotland being given proper information. Each programme can have off days but there is little reason why the increasing importance of the Scottish Government and Parliament in our lives should be sandwiched between human-interest stories and the football and almost ignored on London-based output. I believe Alex Salmond's 10 Scottish Broadcasting Commission members led by Blair Jenkins have a really positive brief to meet the needs of every part of Scotland and suggest opportunities for more control of TV output in Scotland to educate, entertain and build national confidence without robbing any viewers of their favourite programmes.

*

THIS week saw the launch of a national conversation on Scotland's future status and the SNP Government's ideas about the benefits of independence. It has predictably met with united Unionist party opposition to any debate. So that's why the SNP Government, which has been given unprecedented polling support for its actions so far, wants to ask people across the land what they see as the main ways we can make Scotland happier, healthier, more productive, and greener. We need to discuss how to achieve the specifics that people want us to achieve.

I will be conducting my own discussions through a series of meetings in the autumn to seek advice and hear voters' views, and I'm glad that I'll be chairing a workshop at the Caithness Partnership conference in mid-September. So I am also delighted that Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, was here in the county this week to kick off discussions on the way ahead with Dounreay stakeholders and HIE Caithness and Sutherland.

I know that Jim has his own style of analysis that seeks common agreement and common ownership over the biggest things that can make a real difference to our lives. We need to guarantee secure, steady funding for decommissioning and a smooth transition of highly-skilled work into global decommissioning based here and in marine renewables associated with the Pentland Firth. It is clear to me that Caithness's future needs, and similar ones across Scotland, all point to the kinds of issues that Alex Salmond wants in the national conversation on Scotland's constitutional future. I'd be very pleased to hear from Groat readers what they see as the big changes that will secure our future.

Friday, 3 August 2007

Photo: The Scots Guards Association Pipe Band marching to Halkirk Highland Games on Saturday, led by games chieftan John Thurso

Published: 03 August, 2007John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier

THE sound of bagpipes reaches many ears each summer as pipe bands parade through our streets, at Highland gatherings and in the cut-throat competition that leads to the world finals in mid-August. During our holiday in Brittany similar sounds were in abundance.

Festivals fill summer days in most countries, but few can be so influenced by Scottish musical instruments than the import of our bagpipes to Brittany. These sunny Celts, at least in most years compared to home in the North of Scotland, lost so much of their local culture, under pressure from a monolingual French state, even before the disasters of World War Two. Against the background of repression after 1945, Breton culture was saved by the creation of pipe bands. They differ from our Highland bagpipes and drums by adding the bombard, an ancient Breton oboe with a piercing timbre that used to be played along with high-pitched Breton small pipes by pairs of players for weddings and other social gatherings.

Today the pitch and power of our Highland pipes is a great match for the bombard and allows large groups of players in each generation to revel in the old Breton tunes. They can't directly compete with Scottish bands and their freer style is far less militaristic. But along with a 2000-strong audience at the Festival de Cornouaille, in Quimper, I heard a most inspiring collaboration between the Bagad Kemper and the Clan Gregor Society Scottish (Grade One) Pipe Band produce "Scotland in Cornouaille". Add to their playing of Breton and island tunes the king of pipers, Fred Morrison, and young Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, and we all shared a five-star evening under a huge tent.

Fast forward, seamlessly, to Halkirk last Saturday to hear the Scots Guards Association Pipe Band parading between heavy showers on the games field, while in Inverness the massed bands on the same day at the Bught Park for the European Championships where over 4500 players in 130 bands mesmerized the audience. For me one fine band at a time seems more digestible. Nevertheless, devotees of the piping world have never been so well provided for. It seems from the entry lists in the big competitions that every country wants to have a winning band. Well done to the generations of social and military pipers from Scotland who have achieved such a worldwide following for our native music.

DEMAND for our native foods is also on the rise. Ackergill provided a fitting venue this week for the Taste of Caithness and Sutherland event that gave a platform for 25 local producers with their range of premium local produce including meat, organic eggs, fish to oysters, honey to chocolate, cheese to Highland oatcakes – all produced in the North Highlands.

Undoubtedly it is time to promote more vigorously the produce of Caithness and Sutherland – as HIE chairman Willie Roe said – which would allow a much wider circle of discerning customers to taste its natural goodness. Visitors, supermarket chains and restaurant buyers came to sample the tasty exhibits but how many local residents will ever have daily access to such bounty? If, as HIE says, agriculture remains one of the main economic drivers in the North of Scotland and Taste of Caithness and Sutherland shows that we produce the highest quality, then the big push has to come through attracting as many locals to buy. A good initiative is the Gates Open project organised by the Highlands and Islands Local Food Network for September and October. Although Food for Thought, of Spittal, is the only Caithness entry in this first year, I hope many more of the fine producers represented at Ackergill will be prepared to join the farmers and growers across the Highlands to celebrate the best in local food. As many of you go on a regular basis to shop in Inverness there are plenty of Gates Open events near there. It could be extra fun for the family. Log on to www.gatesopen.co.uk to find out more.

The Scots Guards Association Pipe Band marching to Halkirk Highland Games on Saturday, led by games chieftan John Thurso. Robert MacDonald 01955 602741

I'm a co-convener of the Cross Party Group on Food in Holyrood and I can tell you local food networks get our vote. But since most food is bought in supermarkets then it's up to consumers to seek out quality and home produce to up the range that Tesco, Asda and the rest put on display. In French superstores the range is far greater and fresher in every department, even in smaller local stores, because French consumers have a keener sense of taste linked to price, rather than quantity at cut prices. What an incentive for an even more lively food-producing, job-securing, sector of our own local economy.

MINISTERS journeying to a' the airts is a feature of our long summer days. The environment minister listened to opinions in Wick, the First Minister officially opened the Clearances memorial at Helmsdale, and upgrades on the A9 at the Ord got the transport minister's green light recently. So I do hope the planned Caithness Partnership Conference in the middle of next month can combine optimism with our undoubted skills in engineering and impress with a united voice that Caithness wants to be at the cutting edge of a sustainable Scottish economy. Meanwhile I'll be lobbying the transport minister to see the Berriedale Braes and Far North rail line for himself.

Friday, 20 July 2007

NOW that parliamentary recess is upon us, we finally have time after a very busy few months to take stock – a fairly formidable task. Everything seems (and I suppose is) different. This manifests itself on many levels.

The corridor outside my office is a case in point. When I was on the first floor, pre-election, there were only 27 SNP MSPs so you got to know the faces that passed along; you knew roughly what views you’d get from various windows. In a way, you were settled.

Post-election, that has changed – not least because there are now 47 SNP MSPs. That means new faces along the corridor – new corridor, as it happens. Having an office on the fourth floor also means new views, a new neighbour (my previous one, Jim Mather, now residing in the Ministerial tower), more light and less pigeon droppings on the window!

There is a change in the country, too – a new way of doing things; an acceptance to look at things differently. It is the same landscape but the light has changed, revealing parts of the country that previously blended into the background.

Word reaches me that Alex Salmond is in Brussels saying that Scotland should lead the delegation on fish quotas. As he points out, 70 per cent of the UK catch is caught in Scottish waters. Flanders leads for Belgium but, as it stands, Westminster leads for Scotland whilst our delegation is sidelined.

This request, I am reliably informed by sections of the media, is Alex Salmond picking a fight with Westminster. It seems to me the First Minister is standing up for the best possible deal for an industry vital to the lives of many of the people he represents.

The 25-year rule revealed that Edward Heath said fishing was expendable and could be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations during the entry process to the EEC. Some of our fishermen may presume that the policy has not changed drastically in the past few years.

Picking a fight or standing up for people and livelihoods? I suppose it depends on which way you look at it.

*

WHEN I was asked recently if the SNP supported a land tax, I said not immediately. It’s my view, however, that an appropriate long-term solution to stabilising or increasing the local component of local taxes in Scotland has to revisit land values as opposed to property values.

That said, the minority SNP government will have to build a majority for each change, so the initial scrapping of the unfair council tax and its replacement with a local income tax would seem most likely. Given Lib Dem support, it would be a good start to meet a popular priority across Scotland.

Also a proposed Common Good Bill by the Lib Dems would find common ground with the SNP, who want community councils to gain more powers.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, will inherit a pledge from the last administration to review the Land Reform Act. This could build on a Labour manifesto commitment to extend the community right to buy into more urban areas. There may be room to include a scoping exercise that extracts the LVT component of the Burt report to give it closer scrutiny.

Communities have suffered from a far-from-simple process which includes more ministerial discretion but a straitjacket for the applicants. Also the abolition of the Scottish Land Fund has not helped. Changing criteria for applicants have frustrated many would-be community initiatives. The Big Lottery Fund is not a happy home for potential land purchasers, as the Labour Chancellor sucks every penny of Lottery cash to pay for the London Olympics whose spiralling costs dwarf land price inflation itself.

Building consensus in the parliament of minorities should be possible by taking forward the Crown Estate Commission review authored by Robin Callander. It was endorsed by all local authorities in the Highlands and Islands as well as prominent Labour and Lib Dem MSPs who sat in the last session. The SNP has long sought to remove the “tax” on development that the Crown Estate levies on ports and offshore electricity transmission.

Also, Members’ Bills such as my own proposals for succession law reform could be early instalments in a new round of land reform for Scotland.

Friday, 6 July 2007

WHAT a six weeks it's been since the Scottish elections produced a slim SNP victory at Holyrood.

Minority government is a rare experience, but exhilarating announcements were made that will be followed by legislation. Session three was then marked by the formal opening by the Queen of Scots, ably introduced by our new Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson and replied to in style by First Minister Alex Salmond.

A breath of fresh air has passed through the corridors of devolved power in Edinburgh, and the celebrations on the Royal Mile and at the picnic and entertainment on the green spaces outside the Parliament were a popular success, even if the latter acts last Saturday afternoon played in the prevailing rain that has so marred this June.

Later that evening MSPs and invited guests were privileged to attend a special performance of the award-winning production of Black Watch. It was a masterstroke by the First Minister to secure sponsorship and provide performances for Black Watch families and finally for MSPs for a play that is being adapted for performance in North America.

I can think of no more symbolic statement that the health of our culture is at the heart of Scotland's new government policy. It is a searing indictment of policies that have destroyed so many Iraqis and hundreds of our forces sent in to create stability. Vicky Featherstone, the artistic director and chief executive of the National Theatre of Scotland, rose to the challenge and relished the chance to mount these special performances at relatively short notice. She rightly denied the charge by one arts journalist that a Parliament "command performance" was inappropriate.

I chatted with Vicky and some of the cast to add my congratulations after the show, and we recalled meeting at the first performance of Home which the National Theatre staged in the former Caithness Glass factory early last year. Under the watchful eye of our new Culture Minister Linda Fabiani there are widespread hopes of seeing many more innovative moves to celebrate the arts across Scotland. In an answer to me at the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture meeting last week she assured me that local centres of excellence in drama and theatre are very much a part of her plans.

*

TRANSPORT, shipping and the conservation of the waters around our shores were controversial debates before this summer recess. I spoke in support of an all-Scotland transport strategy that ensured rail and road improvements in our neck of the woods. Although Highland Lib Dem, Labour and Tory MSPs supported the profligate Edinburgh Airport Rail Link and Edinburgh trams scheme, I have a hunch that EARL just won't come about and we can get the cash saved to invest in North transport needs.

Also I heard the Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson declare he was about to review the submissions of HITRANS and other regional transport partnerships. I guess he will greet their contribution as a wish-list and not a strategy. So watch this space when he gets to the Far North to see for himself.

On the threat of ship-to-ship crude oil transfers in the Firth of Forth, there was unanimity. But why had the previous Executive failed to get London engaged over the past two years? At least there will be no nasty surprises from Forth Ports Authority over the summer as we have now voted for an order to call in any such plan. This does not reflect badly on ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore transfers of oil at Sullom Voe, Scapa Flow or Nigg, as these have been conducted safely for many years in sheltered waters.

Hopefully a Marine Act for Scotland will pass through Holyrood later in this session, but it has to rationalise 85 Acts from Westminster so it would not immediately solve the Forth Ports issue. But it begs the question how interested the new Brown Government in London will be in removing our immediate fears by amending the Merchant Shipping Acts.

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FLOTILLAS in the past have too often meant the massing of warships. Last week, however, the Moray Firth Flotilla was a peaceful triumph in the calendar of 2007 celebrating Scotland's Year of Highland Culture. Wick's HarbourFest was a huge crowd-puller, as was each leg of the voyage to Portsoy.

I caught up with the show at Helmsdale at the ceilidh after the arrivals of the day had taken to the floor. My storytelling friend Ian Stephen, aboard An Sulaire, the open fishing yawl from Port of Ness in Lewis, was in fine form as he had been in Lybster, spinning yarns for local schoolchildren earlier that day.

I'm sure the spirits of many more were raised in every port of call. Huge congratulations to the Caithness Courier for the pages of pictures and reports of the HarbourFest.

That reminds me how well newspapers in Brittany, our holiday destination – reached by road and ferry, I would add – cover local music events and huge boating festivals, and I look forward to such in-depth coverage becoming more normal in our papers. The refurbished fishing craft made a fine sight and this reminds us of what a draw sailing the Scottish coast is for yachtspeople today. Scandinavian and Dutch boats sail more and more often to our small harbours. It's a great way to welcome overseas visitors.

Such peaceful seafarers spend more, stay longer, and don't get caught up in the chaos of air travel. Alas, so many of our own folk heading off in the school holidays are booked to fly abroad and this weekend showed us how al-Qa'ida terrorism knows no boundaries in targeting London and Glasgow. Let's be pleased our Scottish Government is part of the wider security net, but let us also work harder for co-operation to establish the modern rule of international law. A revitalised United Nations is needed where the SNP wants Scotland to take its place among the nations. Meanwhile, I hope Gordon Brown's new Government will take a change of tack from being world policeman to champion of a stronger UN.

Friday, 22 June 2007

IN the new session I have been given many more committee responsibilities.

The ambitions of the new Scottish government will either be constructively analysed or else the changes many Scots want will be slowed down. So my appointment as deputy convener of Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture is a big job, but with a limited number of backbench MSPs available I will also sit on the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee.

Both wide areas of policy have a strong bearing on life in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, as elsewhere, but being able to articulate our particular issues will be a most apt use for my skills and political experience.

I have already spoken in three parliamentary debates since the restart. The first was on the rural development programme for which Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead stemmed the tide of increased costs to farmers and crofters of the far from "voluntary" modulation.

This EU-inspired wheeze cuts farm subsidies by top-slicing support payments to spread cash for specific schemes of environmental improvements that create and maintain jobs in the countryside. The crunch in Scotland was not to increase expenses ahead of other parts of Britain.

The second debate concerned a greener Scotland. With cross-party agreement that climate change is the number one issue before us, there will be a variety of opinions as to what target we need to set for every citizen, every community and every business. Reducing CO2 emissions to achieve a low-carbon economy in a decade is crucial to the planet's future. That's why I discussed the work of GREAN, the Golspie-based recycling group which has set the pace in kerbside collection, community composting and reuse of discarded items that spurs the council to do the same.

Last Thursday I had the privilege of debating climate change and the prospects for tidal-power developments in the Pentland Firth through an international business collaboration. ScottishPower and Strom ASA, a subsidiary of Norway's national oil corporation Statoil, hope to build commercial tidal machinery in the firth within two years if their scaled-up design proves a success.

Also another Scottish Norwegian commercial pact should flow from the creation of a supergrid that can pipe electricity from Scotland's marine resource, Norway's and perhaps even Iceland's to serve an energy-hungry European mainland. Alex Salmond held talks in Norway with the authorities before the SNP government was elected. He is in a strong position to proceed.

The debate in the presence of the Norwegian consul general Oystein Hovdkinn struck a very positive mood among SNP MSPs and North Lib Dem members, with token Tory and Labour contributions. Anyone can read the official report online.

These first weeks of the new SNP government have seen fresh ideas emerge and, with no overall majority for the government, some nifty footwork by business managers. The Greens' debate on Trident created a historic precedent. The final motion amended by a Lib Dem phrase allowed a handful of Labour MSPs to join SNP, Greens and Lib Dems to thrash the Tories while most Labour members abstained. What a change from the previous session when any hint of rebellion against London Labour policy would not have been contemplated by Jack McConnell's troops.

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CARE of the elderly is to be radically altered by the incoming independent/SNP administration of the Highland Council. The scrapping of proposals for a private tender to replace some homes has been widely welcomed.

Building more sheltered homes is part of the SNP commitment to find more affordable housing across the Highlands where pensioners and those on low pay are hit most by steeply rising house prices. If they are fit to stay in their own homes then care homes can cater for the less able where they live.

When I read the Social Work Inspection Agency report on Highland social work services for children and the elderly it jumps off the page that social work leaders need to set an example of close co-operation with NHS Highland staff both locally and at HQ level to plan comprehensive elderly care. This has to be tailored to the needs of small, scattered communities. It's an exciting challenge.

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SAVE the Children reported in Living Below the Radar that up to 10 per cent of Scotland's one million children live in the worst poverty bracket. Though Scotland has the fourth-lowest severely poor children in the UK, with London worst, it beggars belief that joblessness and unclaimed rightful benefits lie at the heart of these statistics.

It's up to the Scottish government to see that every community which has hidden pockets of poverty gets help. For us in the North it is low pay, poor public transport and a shrinking population that add to child poverty figures. Absolute poverty in African terms is much worse but, in the 10th wealthiest small nation in Europe, Scotland needs to expand our population, to create sustainable new jobs and offer schooling and health care we can collectively afford.

Ironically, this week we are told dads in better-off families are spending more time helping bring up the family.

They are forgoing possible promotion in their jobs, they say. The focus should turn to offering routes out of poverty so that we can approach Scandinavian levels of social inclusion.

That would be exhibited by a narrowing gap between the lowest and highest paid.

Be warned – under Thatcher and Blair, Britain has gone the opposite way.

So Scotland's new government has to harness business to build compassion as well as enterprise if we are to eradicate child poverty.

Friday, 8 June 2007

LAST Friday we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition in Wick with a charity ball at Pulteney Distillery just as the new Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, who is in charge of alcohol licensing, was warning of imminent action against the promotion of "buy two, get one free" beer offers at cheaper prices than supermarkets sell individual bottles of water.

With all funds raised from the most enjoyable charity ball going to the RNLI, a picture came to my mind of Grace Darling's open boat struggling to reach a distressed ship on a boiling sea of booze. Seriously, the drunkenness involving fishermen and others led the women of the parish to seek prohibition after the First World War. These were the women who at the age of 30 gained the vote in 1918. They were much influenced by the squandering of men's lives in drink and the violence and poverty to families that resulted from that male pub culture.

On the other hand, a fund of stories grew around the ingenious ways of avoiding the ban on liquor. Total abstinence was embraced by some churches and individuals but eventually less strict times returned. The prohibition era in the USA is well known but that in Wick only a local memory. Nevertheless the issue is as alive today as it was then, even if the fishing has long since shrunk to a shadow along with the shoals that were once so plentiful. Today, pubs across the country sell 39 per cent of drink because it's from the supermarkets like Tesco in Wick that 80 per cent of wine, 75 per cent of spirits and 60 per cent of cider is sold as off-sales.

Before you think I'm angling to ban fun or curb people's freedom of enjoyment, let's stop to think about a little-reported Holyrood debate at the end of the last year. It stated: "That the Parliament notes with concern the serious rise in alcohol-related crime figures, released by Northern Constabulary, which show a year-on-year increase in drunkenness, drink-driving, serious assaults and alcohol-related deaths; notes in particular the increase in the number of people being arrested for drunkenness, including the charge of being drunk and incapable..." Former MSP Maureen Macmillan led it and other many Highland members such as Eleanor Scott, Jim Mather and David Petrie took part.

Issues they considered included our Northern European behaviour that emphasises the disruptive effects of drink while Mediterranean folk drink as much but don't behave the same. However, the combination of drinking while you eat is an important moderator of behaviour. Alas, the social habits of eating together around a table, as in Latin countries, are far too infrequently observed in Scotland. Also the consumption of fast food after the booze-up is much more the norm here.

So valuing food for its taste and the congenial company it can bring is part of the answer. Even people playing music in a social scene drink less than the listeners. All the calls for more sports facilities and midnight football and the like are part of a cry for a more balanced lifestyle. Yes, how we enjoy ourselves and what we do with our non-work time is a vital component of our culture, our overall health and how it leads some in the community to anti-social behaviour. If the black picture of police statistics doesn't improve, government action is very likely. I will argue strongly for more carrots than sticks, but it's up to families to change and not blame our young.

LINDA Fabiani, the new SNP Culture Minister, has publicly praised art for art's sake and promised to reduce political interference in publicly supported cultural matters. "There's a balance to be struck, because you cannot censor creativity or you are not really promoting the arts at all," she said in a major interview. This sounds well from the new Culture Minister. Hopefully some of the bright ideas in the SNP manifesto can be delivered fairly soon to offer artists and writers grants equivalent to social security payments to allow them space and time to be creative. I am mindful of the words of my fellow columnist George Gunn, who wrote in the Groat last week, as passionately as ever, that "the history of social success in a place like Caithness shows that it depends on active individuals. Individuals working together for a common purpose are the generators of culture. The arts are the pinnacle of cultural achievement."

That means the government and the council as well as the arts agencies have to ensure the facilities, the show and performance spaces, are available in each area. I believe that Orkney and Shetland residents were able to build better halls and venues due to the oil funds they negotiated from big business. Caithness should also seek such boosts from marine and other renewables for the community good. That's why I disagree with the former Energy Minister, Labour's Brian Wilson, who opined some months ago that there will be no more royalty deals like the oil funds from clean energy production. Promoting the arts on a tight budget, as devolved Scotland has to do under the Blair/Brown regime, will need ambition tempered with ingenuity to cash in on all our local assets.

TALKING of local assets, I've secured a member's debate next week on Scottish/Norwegian commercial co-operation. I do recall during the recent elections that one of my opponents, who wasn't local to the North, was rebuked by a member of the audience at the Thurso hustings for smirking when I mentioned Norway. The price of their beer was derided but the enviable lifestyles and incomes of our Norse neighbours can't be ignored.

Friday, 25 May 2007

"THIS administration will seek to be fair to all parts of Scotland," said Alex Salmond, the First Minister of the first SNP government.

That means those who live in Caithness have to weigh up what we need to let us flourish and state it loud and clear. I'm glad that the Caithness Partnership and socio-economic forum will be holding a conference later in the year to address these points to Scottish Ministers.

In the presentation of the Scottish government plans announced in Parliament on Wednesday there are huge opportunities for the Caithness economy, whose future success is one part of the prerequisite to fuel other governmental priorities.

That needs a world-class education system with due attention to keeping open viable nurseries, making smaller classes in early years of primary school, ensuring that secondary schools have enough IT equipment, and so on.

A properly funded and respected National Health Service hereabouts needs no more threats of reviews to cut services in Wick. We must get young people into employment as a means of fostering a sense of responsibility and social cohesion so that all those youngsters over 16 years of age not in jobs, in training or at school receive a personal programme to get them into productive work.

The SNP sees barriers to business as barriers to national progress, so SNP policy to abolish business rates for the smallest firms could be a big boost in all our villages and small towns. I found this a most appealing message at the election and within a year we should have agreement with enough parties to have a real change of delivery.

Businessmen and women have a huge role to play in this nation's future. It is the SNP government's role to make their job easier, not harder. But the second part of that priority is just as important as economic growth has to allow all of our citizens to benefit from that wealth. As your regional MSP I relish this task in this four-year term.

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HAVING a clear Scottish voice to tackle the reserved powers of the London government is also in the news this week.

The UK energy review takes a very different attitude to electricity security than we need to do in Scotland. As an energy-rich nation, Scotland (unlike England) has many options – these must not be squandered by putting our eggs in one expensive basket. Scottish consumers are not so dependent on uncertain supplies of imported gas and we have great opportunities to create far more local networks of supply that do not rely solely on the national grid.

Looking at the Danes for a minute reminds us that they began their 250 combined heat and power systems in many localities. With the streets dug up we can see the benefits snaking out from such a plant at our local distillery in Pulteneytown.

Also the Danes began wind-power developments in a flat landscape when a few local farmers determined to create co-operatives to make a sustainable local power supply. They were not driven by a national scheme that rewards the big players and makes it hard for small ones. Indeed they faced a barrier to such big thinking as there were 48 grids in the country! Their own communities immediately benefited and welcomed that approach.

One thing the SNP government can do is to insist on local energy production proposals being agreed democratically to feed the Scottish Energy Plan. These will also feed into the statutory local plans that guide all planning decisions by the Highland Council and will now be upgraded every five years. So there are very good reasons to demand a say in local energy plan developments. This approach can, instead, take the heat out of arguments that rage across these columns each week.

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TAKING another look at how we attract more visitors to the far north and west of Scotland is overdue. That's why I welcome wholeheartedly the plans announced for a John Lennon Northern Lights Festival due in the autumn at Durness where the late lamented Beatle spent many youthful holidays.

Knowing the troubles of making the Northlands Festival viable, I applaud Mike Merritt and his team who have taken an idea dreamed up at the start of this year of Highland culture and produced an international bill worthy of putting Durness on the map for reasons far beyond the notorious bombing range.

Having had 132,000 hits on their website in just two days after the launch date speaks volumes. When readers plan their leisure time this is certainly one event to make a date with. Though spend power is limited, I hope you'll find something to make you take the high road to the far north-west.

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I HOPE that the Caithness socio-economic planners will do much more to attract visitors to come here. I'm glad that local hoteliers like Murray Lamont of Mackay's Hotel, Wick, are looking for collaborations to do just that.

The feeling is that people want to come here to see our wealth of natural attractions and activities such as the world-renowned Thurso surf, and tourism development is one way of encouraging staff made redundant from Dounreay to stay in the area. Making this a happening place is the task. Why should visitors merely pass through en route to Orkney? There is much to savour in our own backyard – yet it is too much of a secret at present.

I believe the new SNP government needs to have a radical look at VisitScotland.com and give local initiatives much more direct access to enquiries. Few tourist operators think the call centre at Livingston does any justice to the great variety of places in Scotland that want to attract new customers. Hearing a rich Caithness accent respond to your enquiries should be a part of that experience.

I was elected Highlands & Islands MSP in 2003. I am a member of the Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as well as the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. I am also a historian, musician, author and traditional music festival organiser.
Scots, Gaelic and the Traditional Arts are core interests as are nuclear disarmament, affordable housing and saving consultant led services in the NHS.
I was born and educated in Glasgow, and attended Dundee University and Education College. As a former Modern Studies teacher much of my professional life was spent teaching at the Invergordon and Alness Academies as the Principal Teacher of Guidance. Since early retirement, or early ‘relifement’ as I like to call it, I have developed my historical training and skills by writing the book Plaids and Bandanas.
I have been a long time SNP activist and was a former District Councillor in Ross and Cromarty. I joined the SNP in 1966, was FSN President from 1970-1973 and have been a member of the SNP's National Council, Executive, and Cabinet.